Ontology of Global Time: Local Observers, Sources and Destinations

This paper proposes an operational and ontological definition of global time as a canonical ordering constructed exclusively from locally registered reception sequences. It introduces a strict distinction between intrinsic source order, which is operationally inaccessible, and reception order, which is the only admissible basis for coordination at a destination. Using multiple scale-separated periodic sources (e.g., pulsars or satellite signals), the paper demonstrates that a bounded locality such as the Solar System can construct a robust, procedurally unique global temporal order without assuming any absolute time, spacetime geometry, or access to intrinsic emission histories. Global time is treated not as a physical quantity to be discovered, but as a normative canonical order sufficient for coordination, synchronization, and coherent observation. The framework is axiomatic and operator-based, providing explicit conditions for globality, robustness, and precision bounds. Practical instantiations are discussed through existing systems such as GPS, Pulsar Timing Arrays, and NTP, showing that canonical time is already a foundational construct in distributed technical infrastructures. The work is ontological in scope and does not propose a new physical theory of spacetime. Instead, it specifies the admissible status of temporal order required for coordination in distributed observational systems.